Written by Mark Stutt of Camperscape; Photos by Lauren Frost & Rick Goodwill

We couldn’t make the first Field of Dreams Aircooled VW Festival (FoD) in 2013, so we were very keen to get to this one, it being in the North saving hours on the motorway and that it’s organised by friend, Kate of Classic Volks, was a bonus!

We were also keen to get along as to be honest I’d fallen a bit out of love with VW shows, what were great events focusing on the cars became massive and expensive with traders selling hardly anything VW related or complete tat; the music on offer wasn’t to my tastes and the growth in popularity of T4s and T5s meant air-cooled vehicles were becoming a minority and I say this as someone lucky enough to own a Late Bay as well as a T4! Indeed, a group of friends and I started the Tynemouth Classic VW Rally a one day air-cooled show to counter this trend, and as it’s by the beach with the vibe and atmosphere we wanted and that we felt others did to, we’re onto our fifth one now. I knew anything that involving ClassicVolks.com would be top notch so early bird tickets were purchased, dates put on the calendar and time booked off work.

The great day arrived and we purred (our Late Bay, Gracie, having received a new exhaust!) through the Tyne Tunnel on the A19 and headed south. An hour and a half later, with more and more VWs appearing, we turned off the A19 (no need for maps or sat nav, 98 miles on the same road!) and into Escrick Park. Straight away one of the selling points of FoD became apparent when we were directed to the air-cooled only parking area! Although to be fair, the steward did have to ask if we were aircooled, so maybe a VW spotters guide should be included for the stewards! It easy to forget that not everyone is as obsessed with aircooled VWs as we are…

A short trundle over the fields, and a friendly chap guided us into our spot and that set the tone of all the stewards/organisers – friendly, helpful and approachable (no ‘hi-vis vest of power’ attitude here). Awning up, kettle on, camp chairs out and relax! We were pitched at the bottom of one row of aircooled VWs, a mix of Splits, Bays (Early and Lates) and a few T25s with a large area in front of us leading to the marquees and food and drink stalls, so a long walk to where things were happening certainly wasn’t going to be a problem.

Catching up with old friends and exploring the trade area took up the rest of Friday. The trade stand area itself is worth mentioning as it was the best one I’ve seen at a show; enough relevant, quality stands to offer a great choice (including three swap-meet stalls) but not too many that it overwhelmed the show. It’s positioning was ideal, being right by the main site in between the two camping areas and when the sun set the strings of light bulbs for illumination were a really nice touch.

I’ve mentioned there were two camping areas, one was air-cooled only and the other was for any VW or even (whisper it) the odd caravan… These gave people the choice to camp in the mixed area to be with friends who don’t own an air-cooled VW or, if they did, be part of the actual event, as it’s raison d’être! A busy week before FoD led to an early night on Friday but it was very pleasant listening to the excellent music of The Inspectors coming from the marquee and once that had ended a very good night’s sleep ensued.

Saturday started overcast but warm and the appearance overnight of the Rothfink crew from Cardiff. They’d brought the awesome “Rustbus” (drool…). Parked up with them for the Haul of Rust display was a beautiful patina’d Beetle, a couple of ‘Things’ and If you don’t know Rothfink (and why not?) they produce a natty line in clobber and some great photshoots of old Dubs, tattoos, bikes and anything else that catches the zeitgeist. They are a nice bunch too as I found chatting to Jason as our daughters caught some air on the bungee trampolines!

Saturday day was spent chatting with friends, tree climbing, lounging on the handy straw bales listening to some excellent acoustic music and observing Kev’s masterclass in MCing on the wireless mike! Next to the music marquee with it’s cool Beetle DJ booth was a chill-out tent with more straw bales and blankets in case the weather turned, thankfully it stayed dry, but it was a nice touch.

Due to tragic events at the Manchester Dogs Home the Canine Show n Shine was almost cancelled but people rallied round, volunteered and the show did go on! Bravo to all those who helped. All proceeds from the dog show were sent back to Manchester with Dogs N Dubs to be given to Manchester Dogs Home to help with the rebuild of the home.

Green Bay Café (a café housed in a Green Bay bus…) provided caffeine a converted DubBox trailer provided alcohol and lots of food stalls provided grub (the wood fired pizzas proving very popular with us!) and a very pleasant day was had by all.

The evening’s music kicked of with TEN79 playing some cover versions and their own songs had an early REM vibe with the headline act The Talks and their two-tone, ska, rap fusion going down a storm. The theme for this year’s FoD was ‘A day at the races’ and special mention to Steve (from Dubenhams.com), Honor, Gary and the rest for turning on the style.

To round off a most excellent day Kate had arranged for an exclusive showing of the VW bus film ‘Circle the Wagen’; the tale of a couple of young lads who bought a Late Bay bus off Ebay and decided to drive it from New York to Los Angeles! Needless to say things didn’t run (in every sense of the word) smoothly but along the way they made friends, learnt more than they could have bargained for about air-cooled engines and discovered the fantastic VW community that we all value.

The Show n Shine took place outside our awning door on the Sunday and there were some cracking vehicles, a Split Screen Beetle drawing a lot of attention and for me a gorgeous Karmann Ghia was the highlight as it was the double of my Uncle Johnny’s that sparked my interest in all things air-cooled and VW. Reggae was playing over the PA and everyone was kicking back and enjoying the show. Our daughter won the Hobby Horse race and I was persuaded/blackmailed in to entering the Men’s Hobby Horse race – the 1.20 from Escrick! I came last but special mention to the awesome home made horse and outfit from one of the Flat 4 Dubbers – outstanding!

We had to leave before the prizes for Show n Shine were given out, but I bet the judges had some tough decisions to make. All in all Field of Dreams 2014 was without doubt one of the best VW shows I’ve been to, the location was great, facilities spot-on, enough things to keep kids entertained, not too big, but with enough people and vehicles to create a special vibe that other shows just haven’t got. If you didn’t make it this year, make sure you get your tickets for 2015, it’ll be one of the best shows of the year, you heard it hear first.

Thanks Kate, and all the others who put this show on, you nailed it!

2015 dates are 11th – 13th September, tickets are available from midday on 27th October 2014 by going to the website

Once again the masses descended on Weston Park in Shropshire for the fantastic Camper Jam VW Festival. As the name suggests, this one is all about the campervan, from the Split right through to the T5. The camping was completely sold out a couple of weeks before the show – you have to be quick to grab tickets for this show!

We left York at around 7pm and it rained the whole journey down, the rain stopped as we set up camp with the awesome Split66, Matt, Rachel and little Gage.

On waking on the Saturday morning, the sun was bright and it was already warm at 7am, this looked set to be a great day at Weston Park. As we were first up, and having forgotten pans and a kettle, we headed straight down to the showground to get a coffee from the excellent Green Bay, where we always know we can count on a great coffee to start the day! The showground was looking fantastic as always and it certainly looked set up for a great weekend, the Camper Jam staff all looked happy and excited and ready to give everyone a fun weekend.

The music was fantastic as always, 16 Stone Pig made their annual appearance, having seen them on numerous occasions I went for the Michael Jackson tribute. Well, I could have easily been fooled into thinking that Jackson had risen from the dead, there was an amazing likeness. I did later hear that the the tribute guy had actually had surgery to make himself look like MJ – I don’t know if it’s true but it’s very believable.

Sunday was a fun filled day and we attended the Cooking in a Camper, watched some of the dog show, looked around the amazin vehicles in the show and shine and sat in the sun quite a lot! There was so much going on, mix that with a fantastic array of traders and I don’t think it gets much better than Camper Jam for me – it’s definitely one of my favourite shows of the show season.

Generally when going to a show I like to get away by about 2 or 3pm, I was so relaxed at Camper Jam that we ended up back at the camp, with the bar-b fired and stayed til around 6pm!

Another great show from the Camper Jam guys – always a favourite show of mine. They have managed to be big but keep the shilled out and relaxed vibe that we all love. See you there next year – tickets go on sale 21st October 2014! Get your tickets from www.camperjam.com/tickets

Don’t forget to pop over and like us and say hi over on Facebook and Twitter.

Gallery

Words and images by Martin Bellamy

Spring 2011: I’m chatting with my friend and business partner whilst out on a cycle ride and he says, “Did you know that you can buy new VW campervans?” “Really?”, says I, “I thought they were all old ones, that break down all the time” “No”, he says, “I saw an advert in the paper yesterday – they’ve got an offer on with £500 discount*”

A month later and Mrs B and I are on our way to Yate, near Bristol, to visit the Danbury showroom. We’ve got an appointment for 2pm (you can’t just turn up) but we’re an hour early. The receptionist (sitting behind a desk made of a VW T2 body) isn’t sure there’ll be anyone to see us yet but she’ll ring upstairs to try and find someone. After a short while, Dan comes down and so starts the bewildering process of buying a new Brazilian made VW T2 Kombi.

I suppose driving down to “look” at a Kombi is a bit like going to “view” a litter of puppies. Apart from timewasters and those who can’t stretch themselves that far financially (and, believe me, it’s a stretch of gymnastic proportions) both outcomes are liable to produce a sure fire sale.

We’d thought about buying a classic 60s or 70s Campervan, but I don’t have the mechanical skills to keep one on the road. If it’s a pen you want pushing then I’m your man – but the thought of being stranded by the roadside with my limited skill set fills me with dread. What we wanted was something reliable that we could use at weekends and for summer holidays.

“Why not get a modern T5 then? They have power steering, modern interiors and much more powerful engines” That’s my head talking, of course, whilst meanwhile, my heart is doing cartwheels at the sight of the iconic T2 shape and suddenly I’m the hippie, free-spirit that I dreamed of being back in the 70s. In reality, I’m MD of a commercial insurance broker in Wigan but, hey, we can all have our dreams.

So, it had to be a T2, and we got down to the process of choosing the options available. I’m 6’5”, so sleeping room was essential and we opted for the full size double bed option. Ker-ching! This meant the spare wheel had to go on the back and we’d need the locking wheel cover, of course. Ker-ching! Do we want all leather on the seats? – you betcha, we do! Ker-ching! How about having her lowered? Oh, yes and BRM alloys please. Ker-ching!

What about colour? Now, we knew we wanted green over white, but weren’t’ prepared for the option of having ANY green we wanted. We’d expected a small choice like you have with modern cars but Danbury have swatches and swatches of colours. Eventually, we chose Spice Green (“Metallic?” “Yes, please” Ker-ching!)

With the addition of a retro wooden steering wheel and classic bowed roof rack we were done and the order was placed. As we drove away we looked at each other and thought, “What have we done?”

Collection was to be in August so we had 3 months to wait – time we spent worrying about the cost and thinking of where we could go in the new van. I found a Forum specifically aimed at the Brazilian Bay which proved to be a brilliant resource for information and which was so friendly we’ve made scores of new friends in the real world as well as cyberland.

We were so excited by delivery day and the train journey from Preston to Yate seemed to take forever. It was all worth it – our first sight of Absinthe (yes, of course, she’s got a name) was fantastic and we couldn’t wait to drive her home. Paperwork done, Mrs B took the wheel and we set off.

What was immediately obvious after years of driving modern automatic cars was that this one was going to need to be driven. The gearbox and gear stick seemed to have minds of their own and the steering was eccentric to say the least. That didn’t stop us from grinning from ear to ear though (what we now recognise as the permagrin of the VW enthusiast) and being thrilled by the waves from other VW owners.

It’s the last bit that has been the real thrill of ownership for us. The VW world is a small one with lots of interconnections and in the main we’ve been welcomed wherever we’ve gone. Sure, there are one or two die-hards who consider anything without an air-cooled engine as less than authentic but, in the main, Absinthe brings a smile to most peoples faces.

The recent ending of production in Brazil has brought the T2 into the limelight again and in 30 years time I’m sure the current incarnation will be as revered as the originals are now. For us Brazilian owners, the attraction is the freedom to use the van as often as we want.

Many of the Forum members use their vans as their everyday vehicles and many have now added power steering to make day to day use even easier. We use Absinthe almost every weekend from Spring until late Autumn and the pleasure we’ve had from her has been immense.

We’ve had 3 week runs through France and Spain and weekends away throughout the UK. We’ve done our first ever Festival (Larmer Tree in Dorset) and have used her as overspill family accommodation at our Static Caravan in the Dales. She’s shifted furniture and been to the tip. We’ve had afternoon teas overlooking the coast and icy mornings in the Cotswolds. She’s even part of our Xmas decorations over the holiday break.

Escrick Park Estate, 12th – 14th September 2014

Field of Dreams Aircooled VW show is back for a second year. After an extremely successful first show in 2013, tickets for this year have just gone on sale and are already flying off the website!

Those that came in 2013, may have been aware of a couple of issues we had with the venue that were completely last minute problems and totally beyond our control, thankfully, we decided we couldn’t put our trust in a venue that could make things so difficult at such short notice! We will be putting on a very fine selection of music yet again, this, apart from the fantastic aircooled VWs on show was most definitely a highlight of the first Field of Dreams and is going to stay as part of the show for years to come, with music to suit most tastes at some point over the weekend. Last year, we had soul, funk, ska, rock, dance, reggae, indie and more, bands that played covers and bands that played their own excellent material, plus DJs, a dance tent, and even an acoustic tent! All three music tents last year had people dancing on the Friday night, for a full 12 hours on the Saturday and throughout the day on the Sunday.

As well as all the aircooled VWs on show, we also had some fantastic traders, including autojumble, craft, VW gifts and parts along with some unusual stands and some fantastic food! We had a fancy dress theme, we are currently deciding on a theme for this year’s show. There was a fantastic Canine Show and Shine, run by Manchester Dogs Home and sponsored by Dogs N Dubs. We had a hobby horse race, I felt we had to have something horse racing related with our venue being York Racecourse. We will be doing the hobby horse race again this year, so get those hobby horses dusted off and customized, there will be a prize for the best hobby horse! And then of course there is the aircooled show and shine, I was amazed by both the quantity and quality of the show n shine for our first year, this is bound to only get bigger and better as the year’s go on.

Escrick Park Estate is a fantastic location, easy to find and is roughly, just a 15 minute drive or bus journey from the beautiful, historic, City of York and some of last year’s weekend guests, did pop into the City for a look around and some in fact spent a few days here before the show. If you don’t know York, it would be a real shame to come to the area and not visit, in my opinion it is one of the most beautiful cities in the UK, if not the world! York has a vibrant café culture, hundreds of museums and historic monuments along with many other attractions, excellent street entertainers, great shopping and so much more.

Field of Dreams, is an aircooled VW show and there is a camping area that is strictly for aircooled VWs. But, we do have a general camping area that is for all vehicles. This can be somewhat confusing if you haven’t been before, basically, if you have a vehicle that was built as an aircooled VW, then if you would like to be in the aircooled only camping area then you purchase an aircooled ticket, if you are coming in a watercooled VW or a non-VW, you can only book into the general camping area, no other vehicles will be permitted into the aircooled area. If you are coming in an aircooled but want to be with your club or friends that don’t drive an aircooled, you may of course book general tickets – the general area is for all vehicles, watercooled VW, aircooled VW and non-VW.

We look forward to welcoming you all to Field of Dreams 2014. You can buy tickets and book trade pitches by going to the Field of Dreams page on our ClassicVolks.com website www.ClassicVolks.com/vwfieldofdreams.html Earlybird tickets are well and truly sold out but there are still a few extra discounted advance purchase tickets left, these are at a 10% discount of the advance purchase price. Be quick though because when they’re gone, you guessed it, they’re gone. *UPDATE 21/07/2014 – only a very limited number of these left!

If you are a business interested in sponsoring the show then please get in touch with Kate at events@classicvolks.com for more information.

Show report and pictures by Rob Blackwood of originals-art.com – if you particularly like any of the pictures you see here then please pop over to his website and get in touch – all pictures are available to purchase.

Now I’m no VW expert, but I love to look at them and more particularly, take photos of them and this caused us a bit of a problem at Tatton Park! Why i hear you ask …well let me tell you,choice and people is the answer.

We have been going to VW shows for a good few years now and we always manage to get hundreds and hundreds of shots between us, at Tatton we took a little over 100 shots, this was nothing to do with the quality of the vehicles on show (more about that later) the reason we took so few is simply because of the crowds, there were swarms of people surrounding all the super cars and buses on show it made getting a nice clean shot almost impossible! It really sounds like I am complaining, but believe me I really am not, quite the opposite really. The quality and variety of vehicles on show was amazing, there was dubs there that I have not seen at any other show, along with some very nice Porsche and some very wacky beach bugs.
The whole showground had a really nice buzz about it, I’m sure the lovely sun had a lot to do with it, when we arrived on Saturday night and seen the 3hr downpour we thought it was going to be a washout, but like I have heard people say, Tatton seems to drain well and when we woke early on Sunday,the ground was almost bone dry! The main reason for the feel good vibe, was just the fact it was one hell of a good show and a real family show. We traded here for the first time and even the range and variety of trade stands were excellent, with lots of stalls to help us part with our hard earned cash!! We had heard such alot of good reports about Tatton and sometimes this can be a recipe for disaster because you have such high hopes,but the show lived up to all our expectations.
Now the most technical bit you will ever get from me,our fave dubs were a nice two tone beetle and a ratty split that we have seen at many shows,i think its the cyclops light we like! and i loved the couple of old Porsches and the VW variants.
Hope to see you at a show soon,if you see a confused looking photographer say hello and explain that the engine is in the back.

A few photos that we took at Camper Jam 2012, there are more to follow after I finish washing the mud off and have a sleep! If you spot your ride amongst the photos please let me know. Feel free to comment at the end. Were you at Camper Jam? Did you have a good time?

By Kate McCarthy Bedward of Classic Volks & York Classic VWs

After another week of checking the weather forecast every 10 minutes and seeing nothing but rain, rain and more rain we were beginning to wonder if this year’s Camper Jam would go ahead. We were due to set off from York at 2pm on Friday (6th July) and it was constant rain here in York. I called the show organisers in the morning to double check everything was okay and yes, it was very wet and very muddy after another torrential downpour overnight but they would most definitely not be cancelling. I for one had made the decision that as long as it wasn’t cancelled we would be heading down – I had been looking forward to this show for a long time and really din’t want to miss it.

We set off as planned at 2pm, the drive down was dreadful – the rain was pretty much constant throughout the journey, bear in mind we were in our ’69 beetle with wipers that do what they want, and the traffic was very slow with many tailbacks due to accidents and roadworks in different parts. We finally arrived at Weston Park at 7pm but this was not the end of our journey, it took an hour to get into the grounds and onto the camping area ‘Home is Where You Park It’.

We found a dry bit of ground to put the tent, in fact the whole of the area ‘Home is Where You Park It’ was pretty well drained. We had lost a tent pole in the wind at last week’s Volkspower and so I had arranged to pick one up from Lightening Leisure on arrival at the show. So, first stop over to the traders area to find them. The ground as we walked down to where the traders were located was extremely muddy and we were very grateful for the wellies had bought that morning! We found lightening Leisure in a foot of mud, picked up our new pole and went to get our tent up. Once it was up it was time for a wander round to see what there was on site. The first part of the show we came to was a good sized fairground with waltzers, bumper cars, a crazy bull ride, ghost train and much more, this we would definitely be coming back to later! Next there were the food traders and what a selection there was! – from the usual fish & chips and burger stands to Caribbean and vegetarian food, a cous cous stand and noodles amongst many others, spoilt for choice I think you’d say! In among this was a DJ in a campervan playing some great tunes – people were having a fantastic time here dancing away in the mud!

There were 2 very large marquees both with live bands – although The Beat who were supposed to be playing were unable to come due to adverse weather conditions (not as hardcore as us veedubbers I guess!). We had a good look around bumped in to a few friends and had a really nice evening. It was a real shame the The Beat couldn’t make it as many had been looking forward to seeing them, in fact a couple of our club members had only come to this show because they were playing. However, Saturday night’s band 16 Stone Pig were absolutely fantastic, I think I can speak for pretty much everyone that was in that tent to see them when I say, we all had a fantastic time – they played some great covers and got us all dancing and jumping around – videos will be uploaded shortly to our YouTube ‘Classic Volks’. Once they had finished we wandered over to where Druid’s Brew were playing from their split screen campervan – we sat there probably for about an hour, very chilled out acoustic music under a tree, there was a beautiful and relaxed atmosphere, I could have sat there and listened all night. After this we were relaxed and ready for sleep.

Unfortunately on Saturday night the organisers had to make the very difficult decision to not allow any day visitors in on the Sunday – although it had only rained a couple of times during Saturday, the times it did it was very heavy rain and any more vehicles coming in could have made it more difficult to get people out at the end of the show.

We awoke to beautiful sunshine on Sunday morning! So we decided the best course of action would be to have breakfast and then pack up the tent etc in case it decided to rain later. Once packed up we drove down to the show area so that we could get out easily at the end of the show.

The show and shine time was brought forward to give people time to get off the site and get towed off if necessary, some areas were still extremely muddy and this was most like to be the only way they were going to get off. Some of the traders and packed up and gone home before we even go down there – I think they were worried that if it rained again they may be stuck there until Monday – it had been mentioned at some point that this may have to happen, we weren’t sure if this was true of if it was just a rumour, but there were some that didn’t want to take the chance.

The show and shine was of a very high quality, some fantastic campers on show – both old and new, one of my favourites was definitely the split screen high top. Rob Henley with his T5 won best in show (his dogs had also won places in the dog show!), Rob Underwood (of VW Wedding Hire) and his split screen wedding campervan ‘Beryl’ also won a prize as did Rob Newman (of Dubtrips camper hire) with his recently restored split screen ‘Jeremy’ – both of these split screens were immaculate and were restored at Dubtricks of Harrogate, see accompanying photos!

The sunshine did stay all day on the Sunday and it was a beautiful hot day but still very muddy on the showground. We decided to leave after the show and shine to avoid the queues getting off the site as we knew our first stop was the nearest petrol station petrol station!

Despite the weather and the mud I have to say Camper Jam 2012 was a fantastic show and I think the majority of people there would agree that the organisers did a fantastic job keeping the show running and making it an absolutely fantastic weekend! We are already looking forward to next Camper Jam 2013 and come rain or shine we will be there!

I have decided to just do a picture blog for this show, partly because I am so busy cleaning mud of everything and doing my usual day job (running Classic Volks & York Classic VWs) and getting ready for setting of to CamperJam 2012 on Friday. Seems the working weeks are very short currently as I am at shows pretty much every weekend, so I spend Mondays cleaning all camping equipment (all shows so far have been wet and muddy), and then Fridays are spent packing up and getting ready to go, with a day in the middle somewhere to give Miss Betsy (my 1969 Beetle a bit of love ready for her next trip). We took plenty of pictures so please enjoy.

This is a very new to the scene and welcome addition to the growing list of VW shows happening in the North East of England; it’s really a bonus not having to travel to the other end of the country to get my VW show fix (we’re from Tynemouth) and I found out about it as I follow Kate one of the organisers on Twitter (@ClassicVolks) and Facebook.

With it being so close and especially in the Dales (one of my favourite areas in England) made it a no-brainer to go to. The price of £10 per campervan (for one nights camping and all entertainment) was a bargain!

The location at the Nidderdale Showground was perfect! Two minutes walk from the high street of the lovely village of Pateley Bridge was a pleasant change to being stuck in a field miles from any facilities and I’m sure the pubs, shops and takeaways had a roaring trade that weekend.

The whole event had a really nice laid back vibe (like the shows back in the day), with enough trade stands and food stalls to keep you going for the two days and some great bands performing from an articulated lorry trailer as a stage (very old skool!). I met up with some old VW friends and made some new ones and the folks attending were a nice mix of old, young, families and couples and everyone got along nicely.

The show ‘n’ shine attracted some lovely buses, beetles and more modern VWs, my favourite though was a distinctly non-shiny ’53 Barn Door bus with more patina then the Titanic!

The weekend past too quickly and I’ve heard they want to make it a two-nighter next year; where do I sign up for tickets?

Mighty Dub Fest

Dubs driving off into the woods – picture by Classic Volks

This show is now in it’s third year (after moving from Newcastle Racecourse) and is settled in Druridge Bay, a fantastic coastal location with the beach two minutes from the beer tent!

Possibly the biggest show in the region (apologies to VolksPower in Redcar if that’s incorrect), the camping areas are around the lake with a large marquee housing the bar and stage for the plentiful bands that appeared. There was also a dance tent, plenty of trade stands (we were one – Camperscape), food and drink stalls and other things to keep the bairns happy. I know quite a few people in the local VW clubs and it was great to unwind listening to a few bands, having a laugh and catching up with people. This event coincided with Euro 2012 and the footy was even screened in the main tent!

Unfortunately the ‘so called’ British Summer didn’t arrive, but a monsoon did and the event was quickly re-christened Mighty Mud Fest! Barry and the other organisers and the local council and park staff battled to prevent it going the way of so many other VW shows this year and thanks to their efforts it wasn’t cancelled. There’s nothing the organisers could do about the weather and people pulled on their wellies and got on with enjoying themselves.

I also bumped into a former work colleague and it was great to catch up with Mark and Angela again, she runs tribal belly dancing classes (I didn’t join the workshop you’ll be pleased to hear!).

These two events show the variety of VW festivals that are happening now in the North East and all the organisers should give themselves a pat on the back for putting the North East firmly on the VW map. See you at the Tynemouth Classic VW Rally on the 28 July!

Some may say we’re totally crazy, others know and understand our obsession. Yes, it was the middle of February and extremely cold but that was not going to stop us heading down for a night of camping in order to be on site ready for the first Veedub show of the year.

We Met a couple of club members in York and set off just after 12:30 – all very excited and very much looking forward to this – marking the start of the 2012 VW events season. Our first stop was Woodall services just over an hours drive from York, here we met up with some of the Sheffield Owners club and some of the Doncaster club as well as some of the RULE (R U Low Enough) Club. From there we convoyed the rest of the way down to Staffordshire Showground.

We arrived at the Showground at around 4pm and found our York Classic VWs Club camping area – a couple of our members had arrived before us as they had been in the area the night before. We set up our tent in the freezing cold – although I have to say putting the tent up and the excitement must have kept us warm as we didn’t notice how cold it was after a while. Once the tent was up it was time for a coffee in the tent with the heater on. We then all had a bar-b-que and sat around and chatted dubs for a few hours, then decided it was getting a little cold so thought we should head of to the bar where it may be a little warmer. The walk over to the bar, although only a few minutes, was absolutely freezing so the warmth on arriveing was very welcome. We stayed in the bar and chatted to fellow Veedubbers for a few hours. We then headed back to the cold, cold tent. Heater on and coffee made it was time to try and get some sleep. We managed to stay warm enough to get some sleep which was great – with the help of a heater and a great big duvet! The next morning we were all up nice and early – part of this due to the cold and partly because we were all very excited about the show. Coffee and bacon on the bar-b and then ready to head over to the show – thankfully this show is an indoor one. We had woken in the morning to snow on the ground (it did disappear pretty quickly though as the sun was shining).

The show The show didn’t open til 9am so until then we decided we should have a wonder round and look at some of the lovely VWs around, and there were some real beauties. At about 9:30 we decided that the queue would have gone down enough so to the show we went. First stop was up to Dogs N Dubs up on the balcony to take them a much needed bacon butty.

The show was absolutely jam packed – obviously a very popular show, I think the majority of people drove to Stafford on the day (not too many people around mad enough to camp in this cold weather!). It was very difficult at first to get anywhere – so busy. We had a good wander around the show and shine area – some absolutely gorgeous dubs in there, I would have found it very difficult to pick a winner. If you are looking to buy anything VW related whether parts of accessories or clothing this is definitely a show to visit. We saw some fantastic cars and vans for sale – if only we’d had some cash on us (actually, probably a good thing we didn’t as there may have been a good few veedubs heading back to York with us! There was an amazing number of parts for sale including panels etc. All in all a very good show – although I do think they maybe need a bigger venue.
To get a real idea of the show please visit our facebook page: and have a good look through the photo album for Dubfreeze 2012, I have only added a small sample of the photos on here.

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